In the book "Robopocalypse", every character has their own story of struggling through crises, and these crises bind them together. Almost 13 characters play their role in their own story, from the time robots start to malfunction, to when there's a full out war with them. It's also interesting to each characters reactions to certain situations, instead of just one main character.
                The story starts off in the future with Cormac Wallace, a leader of a squad of troops, when the war is already over. While scouting an area, he finds a black, mechanic box, with records from when the war started, to when it ended. The story then continues with the story's and interviews of people all over the world, and their suffering throughout the apocalypse. Though a few stood out among the many, especially recurring characters.
                 One character that stood out was Lonnie Wayne, of the Osage Nation of Indians. The Osage were everyday people, until the robot up;rising forces them to get out of their everyday lives into "warriors". At first, the Osage are against taking people in until Lonnie gets through to them that they have to stick together, Osage or not because the robots"Weren't picking favorites" according to him. After a while he finally gets through to them, and according to Cormac's notes after each story "The Osage Nation never turned away a single human survivor during the New War". IKt shows the coming together during times of Crisis.
                  Another example is a story from Spc. Paul Blantor, who was a prisoner in a military camp. After the Tanks and Artillery start killing human soldiers. This forces him to team up with one of the soldiers holding him captive to escape out o the prison alive. The soldier is against it, but finally decides to team up with him. The to escape the camp alive. This is another example of people coming together in the war, and change in character during a time of crisis.
                    So over all, the stories and mulitple character of "Robopocalypse" play huge role in the book. It shows, through the examples, that war makes people go through huge changes in times of crisis.

                  
                


                 

A Million Dollar Throw Reading Response

                "A Million Dollar Throw" by Mike Lupica, in my opinion, was a sappy yet touching book at the same time. It starts off with main character Nate Brodie, nicknamed Brady, a football quarterback on his team. One day, he gets a chance to win a million dollars by throwing a pass through a target in a football game. Nate's excited, but also starts feeling pressure build on him, as his parents go through money problems and his best friend Abby is slowly going blind.
                  To be honest this story kind of touched me in a way, as throughout the story Nate feels the pressure on his shoulders build. I felt connected to Nate, as throughout the story starts slowly losing confidence in himself, when he starts playing bad enough that he has to sit out for some games. The ending in way shocked me, but really didn't, as he makes the throw in the target, but spends the money for surgery on his friend Abby's eyes. He uses the rest of the money to stop his parents from selling the house due to money problems. This is the part of the book, in my opinion was a bit sappy, but touching at the same time.
         Overall, A Million Dollar Throw was a good book overall, with its hard to deal with and touching parts as Nate deals with one crisis over another, with everyday problems that could happen to anybody in a way, and I was glad to have read it for the summer.